Lady Cyclones win season openerThe Russellville Lady Cyclones opened their season Tuesday with back-to-back wins over the Morrilton Lady Devil Dogs and the Paris Eagles inside Cyclone Gymnasium. Russellville (2-0) defeated Morrilton 25-17, 15-14. Hunter Eshnaur had seven kills, Madison McKinley had six kills and Addy Hipps had five. Overall, Lady Cyclones head coach Cindy Jones thought it was a good first outing. “We clicked on all cylinders in that match,” she said. “We ha...

Dardanelle golf claims third place at Lion's DenDARDANELLE — The Dardanelle Sand Lizards and Lady Sand Lizards golf teams hosted their third match of the season at the Lion’s Den Golf Club. On the girls’ side of the match, Alexis Montgomery of Maumelle fired in an 8-over par to claim the medalist honors, while Dardanelle junior Juliana Harper shot a 44 to finish in second. Taylor Salters finished in the top five with a round of 47. The Maumelle boy’s team of Austin Freeman (35), Ryan Spurlo...

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Courier sports staffThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Green, gold right attire for ATU's College Colors DayArkansas Tech University students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends are encouraged to wear green and gold on Friday, Aug. 29, to show their support for the university on College Colors Day 2014. College Colors Day is a national initiative that was created in 2005 as a means of providing organizations and individuals with an opportunity to wear their team colors and share in the college spirit with friends and colleagues. According to the web...

Bielema ready for difficult opening test at Auburn FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Bret Bielema has talked throughout the preseason about his increased comfort level at Arkansas, and how he expects that to translate to a better team on the field. The second-year coach won't have to wait long now to test just how far the Razorbacks have come since last season's disaster. After a winless run in the Southeastern Conference, the first for Arkansas since joining the league in 1992, Bielema hopes to snap ...

Lady Apaches place second at Galla CreekPOTTSVILLE — The Lady Apaches combined for a team score of 155 to place second in a recent golf match held at Galla Creek against Ozark and Clarksville. Ozark won with a 136 and Clarksville finished a stroke behind Pottsville with 156. Pottsville was led by Krissy Davis with 45, Britney Heflin with 53 and Cheyenne Carillo with 57. Ozark won on the men’s side of the match as well with a team score of 127. The Apaches tied with Clarksville for t...

Hogs release depth chart for Saturday’s openerFAYETTEVILLE — Other than the disturbing surprise of a possible overnight arson performed on fourth-year starting quarterback Brandon Allen’s vehicle, there were some surprises of the more conventional sort Monday associated with Arkansas Razorbacks releasing their season-opening depth chart. Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema unveiled a 2-deep, and in some cases 3-deep, with the Razorbacks opening the season at 3 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network TV in A...

Panthers keep pace with RHSThe Russellville Cyclones tried out three quarterbacks on Tuesday during their Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) Benefit Scrimmage against the Clarksville Panthers at Cyclone Stadium. Chase Bicanovsky, Ryan Meador and Michael Mullen all took snaps beneath center — all to varying degrees of success. An energized Clarksville, meanwhile, never relented and kept the game close, 23-21, by the final buzzer — despite five fumbles and an intercept...

Sports Watch: Episode oneIf you follow The Courier on Facebook, you may have noticed something flash across your Facebook timeline called “Sports Watch.” I’m excited to announce that this is the first-ever sports podcast produced by The Courier, hosted by myself and the Russellville Cyclones play-by-play radio announcer Mickey DuVall. Starting out, we will be focused primarily on covering football in the Arkansas River Valley. The first episode is a little “bare bones...

Wonder Boys to host final preseason scrimmageThe Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys football team will host its final scrimmage of the preseason today at Thone Stadium at Buerkle Field. The scrimmage is slated for a 6 p.m. start. “We’re looking forward to watching the guys on the field and seeing where we are at this important time,” head coach Raymond Monica said. “We’ll get to watch some film and start making our final preparations for our season opener against Northwestern Oklahoma.” The scrim...

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ATU Sports InformationThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Arkansas QB Allen's truck involved in car fire FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The misfortunes of Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen's truck continue. Police found his truck on fire early Monday and were investigating the incident as a potential case of arson. Sgt. Craig Stout of the Fayetteville Police Department said Allen's truck was one of three involved in a pair of car fires, though he said it was too early to say if the fire was related to Allen's position on the football team. "We don't ...

Razorback round-up: fast facts about the HogsThe University of Arkansas opens its 121st season of football on Saturday afternoon when the Razorbacks travel to face No. 6 Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will kick off at 3 p.m. CDT and be nationally televised on SEC Network. 5 Hog facts • Arkansas will play the toughest schedule in the nation in 2014 according to the NCAA, with its opponents combining for a 103-54 (.656) record in 2013. • Bielema is 8-0 all-time in season-opening g...

Wonder Boys to host final preseason scrimmageThe Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys football team will host its final scrimmage of the preseason today at Thone Stadium at Buerkle Field. The scrimmage is slated for a 6 p.m. start. “We’re looking forward to watching the guys on the field and seeing where we are at this important time,” head coach Raymond Monica said. “We’ll get to watch some film and start making our final preparations for our season opener against Northwestern Oklahoma.” The scrim...

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ATU Sports InformationThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

The life of a coach’s wife: Cherish HoltSenior Night is always hard for Cherish Holt. The wife of Russellville Cyclones head football coach Jeff Holt and a fifth-grade physical education teacher in the Russellville School District (RSD) has to say goodbye to each graduating class filled with kids she taught back when they were still wide-eyed kids. It’s hard to watch them become young men — harder still to watch them play their final game of high school football within the program h...

High School Football Podcast E:1Welcome to the first ever episode of Sports Watch, a podcast brought to you by The Courier. In this episode Mickey DuVall and Travis Simpson discuss various topics concerning the Russellville Cyclones and the upcoming football season, the Pottsville Apaches and the contact rules recently set by the Arkansas Activities Association. Join us every week as we break down all the teams in the Arkansas River Valley.

Former RHS cheerleader makes Dallas Cowboys CheerleadersWhen Ashley Prochazka grew up cheering for the Russellville Cyclones cheer and dance team, she had no idea she would one day take the field as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Prochazka won the spot earlier this summer in a competition against 500 ladies from 36 states and four countries. But it began on the sidelines at Cyclone football games and under the goal at basketball games. “In a way, being on the cheer squads, it taught me how to be an ...

Summer heat raising havoc with outdoor activitiesWe all knew that it had to happen eventually, but most of us held out hope that this was going to be the first summer in years that the 100 degree mark was not surpassed. The truth is that it would not be an Arkansas summer without some hot and humid days to make us long for the first blast of fall, but with a July like we had this summer, many had started looking toward fall a bit early. Currently the River Valley is sizzling leading into the...

Dover Junior Pirates switch to ground attackDOVER — Junior Pirates head coach Ed Kelley wants to change things up on Thursdays when the Dover Junior High football team takes the field. In the past, the Junior Pirates have thrown the ball in order to set up the run. Kelley wants to do the opposite — run the ball to set up the pass. “I think it fits our personality better,” he said. “I think [varsity] head coach Greg Smith made an evaluation over the summer and I talked with him some when...

Unified Whirlwinds face new conferenceFirst-year Whirlwinds head coach Dean Norsworthy isn’t sure what to expect out of the upcoming Russellville Junior High School (RJHS) football season. On the one hand, the team is unified from two teams — the East and West Whirlwinds — for the first time in over 10 years. On the other hand, Norsworthy isn’t sure what to expect out of Russellville’s new conference, the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference (CAJHC). The new league includes com...

Junior Apaches start fresh, battle inexperiencePOTTSVILLE — There’s seldom a year that isn’t considered a rebuilding year when you coach a junior high football team, so it came as no surprise to Pottsville Junior Apaches head coach Greg Coffman when he began the offseason with only one returning starter on offense and one on defense. “Every year you have to start fresh in junior high because you’re always graduating most of your starters,” he said. “So experience is not something we have r...